Daily iPhone App: Cthulu Saves the World arrives from Xbox Live Indie Games

Daily iPhone App: Cthulu Saves the World arrives from Xbox Live Indie Games

Zeboyd Games is a very impressive up-and-coming indie games company. They just released the third game in the Penny Arcade series on Xbox Live Indie Games to rave reviews. Cthulhu Saves the World is one of their earlier titles, and it did quite well on that same platform.

It's a retro RPG in the style of 8-bit games such as Dragon Warrior or the original Final Fantasy games. But it's also a parody of these, in a way: your hero isn't a warrior of the light or a young lad finding his way in the world. It's Cthulhu, the legendary god of chaos from the series of horror stories by author HP Lovecraft. Cthulhu wakes up, and he isn't able to bring destruction to the world as usual. It's your job as a player, through a series of RPG cliches and a well-tuned combat battle system, to get him back those powers so he can be, well, Cthulhu.

Cthulhu Saves the World is pretty great. It's a quality game, and a very nice addition to the iOS library. The one caveat I have is that the controls are slightly awkward. You swipe around the screen to move, and that can be kind of annoying if your finger slides in the way (not to mention that it's not very ergonomic). Swiping during menus can be unclear as well, although battles are all turn-based, so there's plenty of time to change a choice if you make the wrong one.

At $1.99, however, Cthulhu Saves the World is priced super low, and there's a fair amount of content to enjoy and play through. The script is funny, the combat is solid RPG, and you'll enjoy following along with Cthulhu's story. Just be careful -- hanging around Cthulhu for too long might end up causing a little insanity.